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The week

April 20 2012, 1:01am, The Times

Monday

Directly elected city mayors should be paid more, represent larger areas and have greater powers, according to the University of Warwick. However, this could lead to conflict with councils because mayors are likely to want to earn more than the £50,000-£80,000 that council leaders are paid. The report advised that councils should be able to dismiss mayors via a Japanese-style mechanism that would require the re-election of the entire council if a vote of no-confidence in the mayor succeeded.

Tuesday

Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS, ordered hospitals to stop sending vulnerable patients home at night and demanded that hospitals review their discharge procedures. His instructions came after The Times revealed that thousands of patients, including elderly people, were being sent…